The former Weller Center building will be also house downtown offices.

July 02, 2013|By JD Malone, Of The Morning Call

The Northampton Street building that once housed the Weller Center for Health Education has received a vital transplant.

The property, at 325 Northampton St., will be purchased by the Greater Easton Development Partnership and re-imagined as downtown commercial space for its Easton Farmers Market, Main Street Initiative and other offices.

"It is time to bring [the Weller Center] back to life," Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said Tuesday in announcing the deal.

The partnership, with a loan from the city, will pay $900,000 for the building. Gretchen Longenbach, the partnership's executive director, said the total cost with construction will be $1.4 million.

Short-term ideas for the space include a new home for the winter farmers market, which spent last season in the Nurture Nature Center. A permanent food market with a few dozen vendors operating independent stalls — similar to public markets in Seattle and Milwaukee but on a smaller scale — is planned for phase two next year.

The deal provides the downtown its first taste of a permanent fresh food market in decades, and puts the city's Main Street and Ambassador programs into the heart of Easton's premier block. The farmers market operates Saturdays in Centre Square for part of the year.

The partnership is the umbrella organization that operates the farmers market, Main Street and Ambassadors programs that focus on attracting and growing businesses downtown.

The market, the oldest continuous outdoor market in the country, expanded to Wednesday nights this year. The move is another sign of the market's renewed vitality — it nearly ended a decade ago when its sole vendor passed away.

"This really is a dream come true," market manager Megan McBride said of the new space in Weller Center. "People do want this."

It's not just a new chapter for the market, but also for the Weller Center building, which has been vacant for several years. Weller Center Chief Executive Melissa Lee said the nonprofit plans to lease office space on the upper floors of the building for a short time to help the partnership make the transition.

In 2008 the Weller Center closed its operation in the Northampton Street building to focus on a mobile education model — taking its forums and classes to area schools instead of having the schools come to them. The nonprofit hoped to sell the building to the Easton Area Industrial Land Development Co., which planned to then lease the space to Victory Brewing Co. and investors for a brew pub.

That deal fell apart and the building has remained mostly vacant since. A $450,000 grant-to-loan from the Monroe County Local Share Account — proceeds from taxes on the Mount Airy Casino — earmarked for the Victory brew pub was funneled to Two Rivers Brewing at the former Mount Vernon Hotel.

The Weller Center bought the property in the 1980s for about $500,000, according to property records.

As for what happens to the gray, house-sized human head in the middle of the Weller Center's first floor, Lee said she'll be sorry to see it go, but thinks Easton has found a better use for the space.

"I am really excited about it, it is a great use," Lee said.

Panto believes the farmers market concept gives the downtown's growing population a great alternative to driving to stores in Forks or Palmer townships. He said it is probably even walkable for many West Ward residents.

According to projections issued by the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, Easton will grow about 5 percent by 2020, and 15 percent by 2030 — when it's projected to top 30,000 residents for the first time since 1960. A lot of that growth is slated for apartments and mixed-use rehabs which have cropped up across the downtown.

Panto thinks the boom is well underway. Easton has the highest percentage of people in the 25 to 34 age group among the Lehigh Valley's three cities, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It's a key demographic, featuring people who are building careers and have disposable income.

Jared Mast, who will head the project for the GEDP, said the organization could move in by October. He hopes to find 30 to 40 vendors for the public market.

Panto said when he took office for the second time in 2008, the 300 block of Northampton Street was a mess. Since then the Pomeroy's building was redeveloped into restaurants and apartments, the Sigal Museum opened, and now the Weller Center has a new tenant.

"We're not going to sit back and relax because things are going well," Panto said.